Alex Vatanka

Alex Vatanka (الکس وطن خواه) is a Senior Fellow at the Middle East Institute and the Jamestown Foundation in Washington D.C. He specializes in Iranian domestic and regional policies. He is also a Senior Fellow in Middle East Studies at the US Air Force Special Operations School at Hurlburt Field and teaches as an Adjunct Professor at Wright-Patterson AFB.

He was born in Tehran in 1975 and raised in Yusef Abad. His father, Buyuk Vatankhah, was among the first generation of Iranian professional footballers and a co-founder of Persepolis F.C.. Due to the escalation of the Iran-Iraq War in the mid-1980s and following the onset of the War of the Cities, Vatanka moved to Denmark in 1986 to live with an aunt. They settled in the small town of Skive on the west coast of Jutland. He later moved to Aarhus, before moving to England in 1995 to attend university. Here he completed a degree in political science (BA) at Sheffield University and an MA in International Relations at Essex University. His first job was as a political analyst at a small firm in Cambridge that specialized in country risk analysis. In 2001, he joined Jane's Information Group in their central office in Soho London. He began at first writing on political instability in the former Soviet South before eventually moving to become the Senior Analyst at the Middle East desk at Jane’s. In 2006, he moved to the Jane’s offices in Washington D.C., and where he is today a Senior Fellow at the Middle East Institute and at the Jamestown Foundation.

As a fellow at Middle East Institute, Vatanka's research covers Iranian foreign and domestic affairs, with emphasis on Iran-US relations. Vatanka has offered analysis on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action signed between the P5+1 and Iran in July at a panel event held by MEI. Prior to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, he described what he believes are the likely outcomes of a deal with Iran in an op-ed with The National Interest. With Israel's security concerns regarding a nuclear Iran, Vatanka had been covering the development of the Iranian missile program, and Iran's capability in striking Israel and surrounding countries in the region. He was a key speaker at a briefing held by AIPAC, further discussing Iran's political landscape and its impact on regional stability and security. His work on the Middle East has appeared in outlets such as CNN,BBC,BBC Persian, The Wall Street Journal, and PBS, among other publications. He is a frequent commentator for American, European and Middle Eastern radio and television stations.

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